Hamann: Senate IG Bill Wrong

Testifying before the Senate Investigations Committee, Inspector General Kristine Hamann said legislation in the Senate to require the IG to hand off investigations of the governor’s office would potentially mean handing such probes over to someone with a political ax to grind, and “serves no public purpose.”

She said a provision requiring the IG to give up cases with conflicts of interest to the AG goes against the very nature of the office, which is designed to serve as an in-house watchdog.

“Your proposal would deprive the governor of the ability to investigate his own staff,” she said. “Your proposed statute eviscerates the very purpose of an inspector general.”

Hamann, who halted her own investigation ofÂ Troopergate, said she would have had no problem “fully and fairly” investigating her own boss, Secretary Richard Baum, but that given the political controversy surrounding the scandal, she didn’t believe her investigating the matter would settle things. Baum was not implicated in a separate investigation by the attorney general.Â

SheÂ said she offered to work with the AG’s office on their investigation of the scandal, but AG Andrew Cuomo declined the offer.

Hamann refused to reveal who she spoke to as part of the investigation before it stopped, saying that with other investigations by the Ethics Commission and Albany County District Attorney still ongoing, she did not want to discuss specifics.